Best Thai Cuisine — Restaurant in Janesville

It's unclear how and why food this affordable and of this extraordinary caliber has appeared in Janesville Minnesota, but do not delay in experiencing it. As a connoisseur of Thai and Pacific Asian foods, I can confidently say it's not an overstatement that they named this restaurant "Best Thai Cuisine".

Not only has the chef brought with him amazingly authentic Thai and Chinese-influenced dishes, he has also ever-so-slightly modified them to appeal to the midwestern palate. This means it's not going to be spicy unless you desire it so. I started with an order of your basic spring roll and pad Thai; common restaurant dishes that are often misrepresented. The spring rolls were right on. Using an oversized rice paper, they were expertly wrapped and contained romaine lettuce, chicken, shrimp, cilantro, carrot and rice noodles. The cilantro was a bit dull, as was the seasoning on the chicken, however, they were not bad by any means. What really brought them over the top was the peanut sauce. A thin fish sauce topped with crushed peanuts with a sweetness and a spiciness that hit the spot, without being overly fishy or cloying. The pad thai was almost perfect. Truly authentic and far better than the ridiculous versions I've had at the last two restaurants I've been to. They could have cut down on the sweetness a smidge and replaced the lemon with a lime, otherwise it was pure enjoyment. Next time I'll request it a bit spicy.

Because I was curious (and the prices were so low, on top of their opening week discounts), I also ordered the Tom Kha soup with tofu and pineapple fried rice (no meat). I cannot recommend the soup enough!! It was the perfect combination of creamy, sweet, tangy, and spicy, truly exploding with umami. Tossing the sticky jasmine rice in it is a must. A rare event, I pressed past full to clean the bowl. In-between bites, the fried pineapple rice was the BEST fried rice in Mankato. With a beautiful sesame smokiness, I do suggest they chop the onion smaller, increase the veggies a bit, and make extra effort to use fresh pineapple over canned.

Service was fair, but I grant them mercy while they're learning the ropes. There was a line and a twenty minute wait, which is more than fair compared to other restaurants in the area with a 40-minute wait and lesser quality food. I don't expect that to be common. Each server was friendly and seemed to care on a personal level. The owner stopped by the table twice to check on the service and food quality. He was pleasant, humble, honest, and I look forward to conversing with him again. As it was only the third day since they've opened, some finishing touches are pending, such as shades on the front window, hiring a full-time dishwasher, minor fixes, and some fresh updates that come with profitability. I'll be back soon for the massaman curry to see if it tops others....

This restaurant deserves 5 stars because of its food! Everything we ate was very tasty.

In the beginning, our service wasn't the greatest as the waiter took the order of one table that sat after us and he was about to do another table that sat after us until I got his attention and then he came over to take our order... this was just a blip though, because it was taking a long time for us just to order, but once we ordered our food it came out very fast.

For appetizers, we ordered the chicken satay and cream cheese wontons (we ended up ordering one more of the wontons because they were that delicious). The chicken satay was juicy and tender. It does have yellow curry so there's a tiny bit of spice to it, but with the peanut sauce, it's great.

In our group, we ordered pineapple fried rice (spice level 2 which had a kick but still tasted good. Also, my brother, who ordered the pineapple fried rice got the sweet and sour sauce to pour on it... which I highly recommend).

My mother got the wonton soup and that was on point with delicious broth.

I got Pad Thai with shrimp, no spice, and no green onions. Instead of a lime, they gave a lemon wedge to squirt on it, which was fine. The Shrimp Pad Thai was very delicious, with a mild sweetness and lots of shrimp (they do leave the tails on but in Thai restaurants that's common).

Overall the food was excellent and regardless of any minor service hiccups and a plain Jane atmosphere... we will definitely go back! We drove over from Mankato and it's totally worth the trip. I'd go as far as to say that this is the best Thai food in southern Minnesota. The prices are very reasonable as well.

I strongly suggest that you try this restaurant even if it's a bit of a drive, it'll be a...

Best Thai Cuisine is a welcome addition to Janesville and the Mankato/Waseca area. The atmosphere is simple, yet welcoming and the staff are great. Four of us arrived for dinner on a Tuesday and the restaurant was full. The kitchen was busy preparing dishes for both dine in guests and takeout, yet we didn't wait long for our appetizers to arrive.

We ordered chicken satay, spring rolls, and edamame for appetizers. The chicken with peanut sauce was very good. The spring rolls were excellent; we ordered extra dipping sauce, because it was so good.

Our main courses were papaya salad, green curry with chicken, pad Thai with shrimp, and Thai pad bai kara pao (stir fried ground meat). We were not disappointed. Everything was very good. The papaya salad is an excellent compliment to the curry, cutting the heat of curry. If you've never tried young papaya, this is a great dish to try.

We are looking forward to visiting Best Thai Cuisine when we are back in Janesville. And we are looking forward to seeing new items on the menu, especially things like Thai chive pancake and anything...